Fishing Alone Through a Thousand Rivers of Snow - Chapter 9

Several days later, Bai Yujing entered my laboratory.

A mechanical arm held me in midair while I dismantled a mecha’s processor and adjusted its parameters. Bai Yujing stood on the floor below, looking up at me.

After a moment, the arm slowly lowered me. My feet touched the ground, but when I tried to stand, my body wavered and toppled backward.

Bai Yujing darted forward, both hands outstretched to catch me.

The mechanical arm was faster. It caught me and gently supported my back.

I patted it. “Thank you, Changliu.”

The arm rose and danced twice in the air, delighted. Despite being a massive lump of metal, it moved with extraordinary grace.

Ridiculous as it seemed, Bai Yujing could feel that the arm was happy.

Could a soulless machine truly experience joy?

She stared at it, lost in thought for a long while.

I walked up, tilted my head, and waved a hand before her eyes. “What is it? Have you fallen in love with my Changliu?”

Her gaze trembled and swiftly descended from the air to my face—then just as quickly darted away.

She seemed deeply unwilling to meet my eyes.

Was she truly that afraid of me?

…As expected of an SSS-rank Alpha. She knew which creature in the room was dangerous.

My smile deepened. “Did the university send you?”

She nodded.

“Do you know why?”

Another nod.

I pointed to a machine on the south side of the lab. “Get in. We’ll measure your detailed statistics first.”

I had never seen data so astonishing.

Both her physical constitution and mental power far exceeded what people now defined as a “top-tier Alpha.”

Were polar white wolves really this formidable?

I stared at the figures for a long time without speaking.

She might be beyond SSS-rank. She still had enormous room to evolve, and she had not yet experienced real combat. Most Alphas rose another two ranks after surviving the battlefield.

She remained seated inside the machine. Since I had not told her to leave, she did not move.

A mechanical visor covered half her face without diminishing her beauty in the slightest. For a woman this exquisite, a glimpse of her snow-white chin was enough to provoke endless fantasies.

I approached her slowly.

While I was still three paces away, her ears flattened.

I had made no sound, and my research coat completely masked my scent, yet she could still sense me coming.

I wondered what sort of creature I was in her eyes. Why did she fear me like a flood or a savage beast?

Her lips were slightly parted. She looked bewildered, uneasy, and a little nervous. My gaze dropped to her hands, where her fingertips curled faintly over the armrests.

I strode toward her, deliberately letting my footsteps ring out.

Her tension visibly increased. A trace of her pheromones escaped beyond her control.

I stopped beside her and removed the mechanical visor. As I did, her ears pressed backward with all their strength until they lay tight against her skull.

I could not help laughing.

She looked up as though asking what amused me.

I put the visor away and entered a command on the panel. Every restraint around her released.

Turning back toward the display, I said, “I have your physical data. Now let’s see how compatible you are with my Lumen.”

Her eyes lit up.

I knew that was why she had come.

After the previous trial, Lumen had been recalled to my laboratory. Naturally, I would never leave such a powerful new mecha at Imperial Capital University for those fools to ruin.

Bai Yujing had only just established her mental link with Lumen and had not yet fought beside it. The itch must have kept her awake at night.

Soldiers slept with their rifles in their arms.

Mecha warriors, naturally, wanted nothing more than to marry their machines.

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